In general, contact information on acquaintances such as friends and clients is recorded on an address list, an address book, a phone book, etc. (hereinafter, referred to as “a list of contact information”), and managed. While each piece of information has been written in a paper address list or phone book conventionally, along with the popularization of personal computers and cellular phones recently, it has been often the case that each piece of contact information is input in these storage media through an address book, an address list, a phone book, etc. in various types of software, and managed as electronic information. For processing of writing or inputting acquaintance contact information in these lists of contact information, the acquaintance contact information is manually written, input, or updated in the lists of contact information on the basis of information distributed in writing or orally, such as name cards, electronic mails, postcards, and fax.
When a name, a home address, a phone number, etc are changed because of a move or a marriage, or when own company name, company address, phone number, and e-mail address, etc. are changed because of an employment, a carrier change, a transfer, or the like, there is a need to inform, of new information, the other party with contact self-information input in the list of contact information. In this case, by reference to a list of contact self-information, the new information is reported to each piece of contact information by an electronic mail, a postcard, a facsimile, a telephone, etc., or reported by giving a name card or orally in the case of meeting face to face.
However, it is cumbersome to inform a large number of pieces of contact information individually, and there is a possibility of causing errors in input of information or notification failures. While the use of electronic mails can transmit information to more than one piece of contact information in a lump, all of the pieces of contact information are not always informed of the same information, the work is thus hard for selecting and figuring out combinations of contact information with notification information, and a large amount of time and labor will be spent. For example, when a carrier is changed to change both a personal address and phone number and a business address and phone number, whether to inform only the business address and phone number, only the personal address and phone number, or the both must be selected depending on the contact information, delays and errors in notification are likely to be caused. In addition, the contact information in a list of contact self-information is not updated to up-to-date information in some cases, and failures in notification may be caused due to incorrect contact information.
For the party receiving information, it is considerably cumbersome to manually write or input the received information in an address list, etc., or update the written or input information, and errors in input of information and failures in update are often caused due to the manual operation. The increase in the amount of information input requires time just for searching previous information related to the received information. As described above, it is difficult in the prior art for the content of a list of contact information of recorded personal contact information on other person to be always kept up-to-date content, and it is often the case that it is impossible to keep in contact. While these lists of contact information are frequently used for specific persons, it is often the case that the lists of contact information are used only a few times a year for the other persons, such as uses for sending New Year's greeting cards, Christmas cards, greeting cards (promotions, transfers, carrier changes, employment, retirement, moves, changes of e-mail addresses, changes of cellular phone numbers, etc.), etc., and whether other's address, title, etc. are correct or not has to be confirmed each time, resulting in an immense amount of effort in total for each person.
Furthermore, as the lists of contact information managed as electronic information, more than one type of software each has an independent list of contact information therein, which may be application software for personal computers, such as spreadsheet software, Web-browsing software, e-mail software, postcard address printing software, and scheduling software, phone books of cellular phones, etc, and an fair amount of effort has been also required to match the contents of respective address lists, etc, and keep the contents up-to-date information. While the lists of contact information can be subjected to mutual data conversion in some cases, even in such cases, there is a need for conversions, or a need for confirming which piece of information is the latest, and fundamental solving means has been thus required.
Patent Document 1 discloses, as a method for modifying and delivering personal contact information with the use of a computer, a method in which a personal contact information provider modifies related personal contact information, a computer system connected via a computer network updates and stores the personal contact information, and the computer system delivers only permitted delivery matters of the personal contact information to a delivery destination if the delivery destination set by the personal contact information provider requires an update.
Now, electronic mails, message boards, and RSS (RDF Site Summary of Rich Site Summary) have been known as methods for distributing information in information processing devices connected to a network. The electronic main is intended to transmit letters electronically, and refers to a system which allows a sender to transmit information to a specific destination if the sender knows an address of the destination, and which is a system basically opened to the public, although an information provider specifies a destination, whereas an information receiver is able to ser individual mail rejections. The message board refers to a system for an information provider to disclose information to the public, and a system for an information receiver to browse specific information with the aid of a search tool. The RSS refers to a system for delivering information from an information provider to registrants by the registration for the information provider, and a system for the information provider to disclose information to the public, and for an information receiver to specify an information provider and request a delivery.